Mark Butler on the NDIS, private health and vaccine hesitancy 

When the National Disability Insurance Scheme was created in 2013, it was proof that a rich society could find the money to help people living with a disability. This was social democracy at work. Twelve years on, it has turned into a $62 billion behemoth, on track to cost more than the age pensio…

Peter Hartcher answers your questions about Iran, Trump and the state of the world

Regular listeners will know Peter Hartcher – he’s our international and political editor and a weekly voice on The Morning Edition, helping us dissect and process the extraordinary times that we’re living in. Every week we get a lot of comments from our listeners, so we put a call out for the burn…

The Australian philanthropist and the alleged $1.6 million sequin-studded fraud

It's shaping up to be a story of profound betrayal – if the allegations are proven in court. On the one hand is one of Australia's most influential and richest philanthropists, a woman who doesn't use email or indeed a computer.  On the other is her personal secretary, whom she entrusted with acc…

Trump and the Washington attack: This shooting is different

Within hours of the shooting, right outside where US President Donald Trump was dining at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, the American president was venting his anger. Not, notably, about the gunman firing shots in the lobby of the hotel. But at a journalist who read out what the suspected shooter…

Airtasker of the underworld, offshore gangs and the uniquely Australian crime

Prohibition-era gangs, mafia dons, the notorious Melbourne’s gangland wars and the rise of flashy outlaw motorcycle gangs. Crime in Australia has had a few iterations, and has mirrored crime occurring in the rest of the world. But now we’re in a new era. Today investigative reporter Marta Pascua…

Labor’s baby a ‘honeypot of fraud’ and the gas tax’s viral moment

Today, we are talking about one of the federal budget’s trickiest customers - the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Labor was once like a proud parent of the NDIS, but now even the minister in charge, Mark Butler, is describing the scheme as a honeypot for organised crime. Also this week, an …

The ‘axis of upheaval’ that's forming against the West

Since the Cold War ended more than 35 years ago, many of us have likely not given much thought to Bloc warfare. Those nuclear threats that the Western and Eastern Blocs hurled at each other? A thing of the past. But lately, the beginnings of a return to Bloc warfare have revealed themselves. Toda…

The likely change to the capital gains tax and the 'Ponzi scheme' of housing

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is slated to make a big change to the tax system, with the centrepiece of the May budget a change totaxing capital gains on property. Will the likely tweaks reduce skyrocketing house prices, or address intergenerational inequality? Today, senior economics correspondent Shan…

The uprising in women's basketball

There’s been something of a revolt in women’s basketball in the United States, and two Australians – Alanna Smith and Ezi Magbegor – are among the biggest winners. Today, sports reporter Frances Howe on the multimillion-dollar deals netted by these Australian stars, as a result of a very simple de…

How Lego became the black market’s hottest trade

Just picture it: under the cover of night, police detectives raid a clandestine drug lab in Melbourne belonging to an organised crime gang. But instead of picking through just the usual: beakers, wads of cash and perhaps the unmistakable acetone odour of ICE, they stumble on something else. Boxes …